Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Book Review: Murder Notes by Lisa Renee Jones

New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones’s heart-pounding thriller of a woman’s secrets—and a past that’s about to come out of hiding…

As an FBI profiler, it’s Lilah Love’s job to think like a killer. And she is very good at her job. When a series of murders surface—the victims all stripped naked and shot in the head—Lilah’s instincts tell her it’s the work of an assassin, not a serial killer. But when the case takes her back to her hometown in the Hamptons and a mysterious but unmistakable connection to her own life, all her assumptions are shaken to the core.

Thrust into a troubled past she’s tried to shut the door on, Lilah’s back in the town where her father is mayor, her brother is police chief, and she has an intimate history with the local crime lord’s son, Kane Mendez. The two share a devastating secret, and only Kane understands Lilah’s own darkest impulses. As more corpses surface, so does a series of anonymous notes to Lilah, threatening to expose her. Is the killer someone in her own circle? And is she the next target?

I am a huge fan of murder mysteries and detective stories, but for some reason I never read them. When I had the chance to read Murder Notes, it sounded like it was going to be an intriguing, action-packed thriller and I couldn't wait to read it.

Lilah Love is trained to get into the minds of killers and track them down. That's why she's so good at being an FBI agent. But when a series of murders link back to her past and her hometown, Lilah knows she has to go back home and investigate. She is certain the person they're looking for is an assassin, not a serial killer, but she has to return to the Hamptons and dig into the people of her past to know for sure. Lilah is forced to confront the secret she holds with Kane Mendez, the son of a crime lord, while trying to figure out who she can trust now and who could be the very person she is looking for.

How is this book labeled a thriller? Because not a single page in this book was thrilling. When the book first started and Lilah was at the crime scene examining the newest dead body, I was so ready for this story. I couldn't wait for Lilah to investigate and uncover the killer. But when she arrived at the Hamptons, NOTHING HAPPENED. So much of this book was literally Lilah sitting in her office or sitting a a diner thinking. Her big, dark secret from the past was beat over our heads and I was so annoyed when we were never told what really happened or why until very late in the book. I felt like it was being used as a crutch to keep our interest and it just got annoying.

Also, when Lilah arrived in the Hamptons, there were so many characters thrown at us that Lilah was thinking about and they were so hard to keep straight. I feel like we really only got a surface level impression of them, too, because we really only got to know people based on what Lilah thought about them and how she categorized them in her investigation. And I don't know if I missed something, but I am still so clueless about the investigation and who could have even done it or anyone's connection to it. I felt no intrigue towards this story and I honestly didn't even care about who was even behind the murders by the end.

If you can't tell, this one was a huge miss for me. I had such high expectations going in and I found a story that was boring and lacked any action. While I haven't read that many thrillers, this one just didn't seem thrilling and lost my interest in the end.

1 comment:

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